Brendan Banfield was found guilty on Monday of killing his wife and another man, the culmination of a case whose lurid details — a fetish website, an extramarital affair and an elaborate scheme — captured international attention.
The trial over the murders of Christine Banfield, who was fatally stabbed, and Joseph Ryan, who was shot to death, included testimonies from Mr. Banfield, and his Brazilian au pair, Juliana Peres Magalhães. Prosecutors had accused Ms. Magalhães, who was also Mr. Banfield’s lover, of helping Mr. Banfield plan and carry out the killings so that the two could be together.
Ms. Magalhães had earlier pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for testifying against Mr. Banfield.
Mr. Banfield could face life in prison. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for May 8.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Banfield, 40, plotted to lure Mr. Ryan to the family’s home by posing, with Ms. Magalhães’s assistance, as Ms. Banfield on a fetish website. Mr. Ryan, 38, was led to think he was being invited to enact a violent sexual role-play scenario that Ms. Banfield, 37, had proposed.
Prosecutors accused Mr. Banfield and Ms. Magalhães, 25, of arranging for Mr. Ryan to visit the home while Ms. Banfield was alone.
After Mr. Ryan entered the bedroom where Ms. Banfield was, prosecutors said, Mr. Banfield followed him, shot him with his pistol and then stabbed his wife, staging the scene to appear as if he had come to his wife’s aid. Ms. Magalhães, who was also accused of shooting Mr. Ryan, said that she indeed had opened fire after seeing him move.
In his testimony on Wednesday, Mr. Banfield, a former agent for the criminal division of the Internal Revenue Service, called the accusations “absolutely crazy.” He said that his wife had engaged in affairs of her own and that it was actually Mr. Ryan who had fatally stabbed Ms. Banfield despite his attempts to save her.
The verdict, which found Mr. Banfield guilty on two counts of aggravated murder, one count of using a firearm in commission of a felony and one count of child endangerment, ends a yearslong case that spawned true crime podcasts and captivated online commenters in the United States and Brazil.
The killings occurred on Feb. 24, 2023. That morning, police officers responded to 911 calls placed by Ms. Magalhães.
At the Banfields’ home in Herndon, Va., a large house on a cul-de-sac in suburban Washington, they found Ms. Banfield, a pediatric nurse, who had been stabbed in the upper body, and Mr. Ryan, who had been shot dead. Ms. Banfield died of her injuries soon after.
Mr. Banfield, Ms. Magalhães and the Banfields’ 4-year-old daughter were also at the home, unharmed. The daughter was in the basement when the killings occurred.
Ms. Magalhães was initially charged with second-degree murder in October 2023 before reaching a plea agreement a year later. Prosecutors have said they would recommend that she is sentenced to time served.
A key question in the case was whether jurors should trust Ms. Magalhães. In her testimony, she said that Mr. Banfield’s plan to kill Ms. Banfield and Mr. Ryan had involved weeks of preparation, and that she had helped him run the fake account on the fetish website.
Mr. Banfield’s lawyer, John Carroll, said that Ms. Magalhães had also entered negotiations with a journalist who was interested in buying her story. Their tentative plan, according to messages shared in court, was to make a documentary for Netflix.
Ms. Magalhães said she had agreed to testify against Mr. Banfield because it was “the right thing to do,” but Mr. Carroll questioned her credibility and told jurors to consider the circumstances surrounding her agreement with the prosecutors.
“When they lie and manipulate to get someone to make a statement, that’s not discovering the truth,” Mr. Carroll said during his closing statement on Friday. “That’s planting the truth.”
He added that physical and digital evidence — including blood stains on the clothes of Mr. Banfield and Mr. Ryan on the morning of the killing, and phone records that gave clues as to who had been running the account on the fetish website — suggested that Mr. Banfield was not guilty.
The lawyer for the prosecution, Jenna Sands, said that the same evidence pointed to Mr. Banfield’s guilt.
“Brendan let Juliana take the fall,” she said during her closing argument. “And it took a little bit of doing, but here we are, and it’s his turn to be held accountable.”
Chris Hippensteel contributed reporting.
Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics across the country.
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